On The Rainy River Symbolism

In the book The Things They Carried, the author Tim O’Brien uses conflict and symbolism to show the central idea that sometimes people can fail to be brave enough. O’Brien shows this central idea throughout the whole book and especially during the chapter “The Lives of the Dead”. Other than in the chapter “The Lives of the Dead” Tim O’Brien uses symbolism and conflict to express the central idea that people can fail to be brave many times throughout the novel. One example in the story of conflict about being brave enough is in the chapter “On The Rainy River”. In this chapter, the setting is right before the war started and Tim O’Brien was drafted. His internal conflict was whether he should join the war or if he should run to Canada to escape

He had the chance to cross right over the Canadian border but does not take it. At this moment, Tim O’Brien says, “Right then, witht the shore so close, I understood that I would not do what I should do. I would not swim away from my hometown and my country and my life. I would not be brave. That old image of myself as a hero, as a man of conscience and courage, all that was just a threadbare pipe dream”. He believes that he failed to be brave enough to escape to Canada and follow what he believed in. The Rainy River would serve as a symbol of how TIm could not bring himself to be brave enough. Another important chapter that Tim O’Brien uses these literary devices to get this central idea across is in the chapter “Speaking of Courage”. In this chapter, one of the men from their unit in Vietnam named Norman Bowker feels that he did not have enough bravery, which led to one of his good friends’ death. His friend Kiowa was drowning in a field and Norman Bowker believed that he should have grabbed him and tried to help him. Throughout the story he has an internal conflict about whether he should talk about the event of Kiowa's death, or whether he should even talk at all. Also, he blames himself for not helping Kiowa when he saw that he was dying and believes that he

Tim O’Brien talks about a young girl who had cancer and would wear a cap to cover her head due to the fact that she was losing hair from chemotherapy. Tim O’Brien talks about how they were friends when they were younger and that he loved her. When they would go to school, kids would bully Linda and try to take her cap off. During this time, young Timmy O’Brien had an internal conflict of whether or not he should step in and help Linda. He would decide not to help because he had a “reputation”. THis is shown when Tim O’Brien says, “Naturally I wanted to do something about it, but it just wasn’t possible. I had my reputation to think about. I had my pride”. One day, one student managed to take the cap off of Linda and the entire class saw how she lost her hair. The cap that Linda was wearing on her head was a symbol of how O’Brien failed to be brave enough to help Linda and stop the other kids from taking her cap off. Eventually Linda died from the cancer and Tim would never stop feeling guilty. Even though this event happened when he was a child, it was a major event in his life where he believed he should have been more brave. This is shown when TIm O’Brien says, “For me though, it did matter. It still does. I should’ve stepped in; fourth grade is no excuse. Besides, it doesn’t get easier with time, and twelve years later, when Vietnam